Thermotron customer L-3 Communications, located in Sarasota, FL, was recently featured by a local news station, FOX 13, regarding L-3’s “black boxes.” L-3’s “black boxes” or Crash Survivable Memory Unit (CSMU) are aviation recorders that have been recognized for having a 100 percent success rate. CSMUs are put in airplanes to record all the final moments leading up to a plane crash. They are built to survive extreme impact and conditions to ensure the safety of the data recorder inside. L-3’s owes their 100 percent success rate to the wide variety of tests conducted on their CSMUs, including environmental testing, and HALT/HASS testing.

L-3 uses a Thermotron HALT/HASS chamber to stress test every one of their CSMUs before shipping. The HALT/HASS chamber simulates everyday stress that the product could experience. The environmental stress that the HALT/HASS chamber simulates includes vibration from the airplane and the temperature and pressure changes from taking off and landing. As you can see in the video L-3 has numerous other humidity chambers, temperature chambers and vibration test equipment from Thermotron in order to assist with their testing program. By performing this wide variety of tests on the CSMU, L-3 can assure that their customers will be provided with a reliable piece of equipment in case of a plane crash.